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Some people spend years searching for the thread that ties together their work, values, and sense of purpose. Angela Catalano found hers early—and has spent the years since weaving it into everything she does.
Today, Angela is a New Roots Institute alum, committed animal advocate, and founder of Peace of Bliss, a healthy vegan sweets company rooted in the belief that food can be a vehicle for change.
But the path that led her here began long before she launched a business or joined the New Roots Institute Fellowship; it began with a moment of clarity at age 15.
Growing up, Angela always felt deeply connected to animals and the natural world. As a kid, she imagined a future helping animals or working as a psychologist. She loved animals, the earth, and the people around her.
At 15, she began experimenting with plant-based recipes on YouTube, a curiosity that quickly led her down a rabbit hole that changed everything.
In a single day, she watched several speeches and documentaries, including Earthlings, that revealed the realities of the industrial animal agriculture system.
“It was a turning point. Light was shed on something horrific that I had previously been unaware of, and I realized my actions were deeply out of alignment with my values.”
What followed was more than a shift in diet. It was a shift in consciousness. Angela began to see herself as part of something larger: connected to animals, the environment, and the people around her rather than separate from them. Through this lens, her world became more fulfilling, heartfelt, and vivid—a perspective that continues to shape her life and work today.
When Angela joined the New Roots Institute Fellowship, she brought with her a strong desire to create change. The Fellowship connected her with students and advocates who shared her understanding of why food systems change, animal advocacy, and sustainability matter. It gave her the chance to turn personal conviction into collective action.
Throughout the program, Angela participated in campaigns that combined grassroots organizing with relationship-building and leadership development.
In partnership with The Humane League, she helped organize protests and meetups in Michigan, including a demonstration at a Crumbl Cookies location advocating for cage-free egg sourcing.
She also participated in a letter-writing event that brought together volunteers from The Humane League and other local animal rights groups to urge executives at companies like Crumbl Cookies and Whole Foods to adopt more ethical practices.
More than 80 letters were written in a single afternoon. Just as importantly, people shared plant-based food, exchanged contact information, and built relationships for future organizing.
“By coming together and doing activism in groups, incorporating a fun and social element, we expand our capacity to improve the lives of farmed animals and pave the way for future events. Using our voices to urge decision-makers to improve farmed animal welfare shows us the power of our voices and encourages us to continue, which ultimately always leads to change if we keep pushing for it.”
One of Angela’s most memorable Fellowship experiences was visiting Barn Sanctuary in Chelsea, Michigan, with fellow New Roots Institute advocates. Meeting rescued animals, hearing their stories, and spending time with others who shared her commitment left a lasting impression.
Through the program, Angela learned how to connect her personal advocacy to broader campaigns, collaborate across organizations, and build the kinds of relationships that make collective action possible.
“I feel very thankful for the support and encouragement I've gotten from the New Roots team to unite with aligned organizations, meet other activists, and create change in simple yet impactful ways. This only fuels each of our fires for activism, and that effect ripples out into more and more change.”
That ripple effect is exactly what New Roots Institute is designed to create: leaders who continue driving change long after the Fellowship ends.
By the time Angela completed the Fellowship, something had crystallized.
She had always known she cared deeply about animals and the environment, but what New Roots Institute helped her realize was that the most sustainable and impactful advocacy comes from following what you genuinely love.
For Angela, baking had long been her love language. What if it could also be a form of advocacy?
Last August, she founded Peace of Bliss, a healthy vegan sweets company built around the belief that delicious plant-based food can help shift habits, perceptions, and norms.
The early days looked like many small business beginnings: recipe development, participating in local markets and events, and learning entrepreneurship in the most hands-on way possible. She stepped outside her comfort zone, learned from other small business owners in her community, and began letting go of limiting beliefs she didn’t even realize she carried.
Today, Peace of Bliss’s treats are available at Yoga and Salt Studio in Michigan, where the community has embraced them warmly. Every treat is a chance for someone to discover that plant-based food can be nourishing, kind, and genuinely delicious—a small but real nudge toward a more compassionate way of living.
Angela’s journey, from watching documentaries in her room to becoming an advocate and entrepreneur, is ultimately a story about alignment. It’s about finding the place where your values, talents, and joy intersect, and then building from there.
For many students, the New Roots Institute Fellowship is not just a program. It can be the beginning of a purpose-driven path in advocacy, sustainability, entrepreneurship, public policy, or food systems change.
Angela remains hopeful about the future. Younger generations, she believes, are proving that change is not only possible, but inevitable. And she intends to keep contributing to that future through her business, her volunteering, her organizing, and the communities she calls home.
As Angela puts it: “Once a person wakes up, there’s no going back to sleep.”
New Roots Institute is a nonprofit empowering the next generation with knowledge and training to end factory farming. Through our leadership development programs, fellows take what they learn about the food system and put it into practice by launching campaigns that challenge industrial animal agriculture. We are strengthening the movement—spreading change from individuals to their communities, and expanding outward into wider systems-level change.
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